Dalai Lama reaches Tawang after seven-hour journey

Thousands of people from as far as Ladakh and neighbouring Bhutan flocked to Tawang for a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrives to deliver teachings at Yiga Choezin, in Tawang, in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India, April 8, 2017. Praising Taiwan for preserving Chinese culture, the Dalai Lama observed that China needed another cultural revolution based on compassion and "not on hatred and anger" which was the case with the one led by Mao Zedong. However, his successor has to have China's approval, he said.

Speaking on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lamas, the spiritual leader said, 'from this year, he'll start holding meetings with high Lamas to discuss reincarnation issue'. CM Khandu proposed Dalai Lama to hold next Kalachakra in Tawang. "The Chinese government should send its officials to see what all I am doing and what all I am saying..."

In 1959, the Dalai Lama entered India through the mountain town after exiling himself from Tibet following an uprising that saw hundreds being killed.

Yesterday, there were reports that the Sangh had launched a campaign to award Bharat Ratna to Dalai Lama.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be disputed territory and said earlier this week that India had inflicted "serious damage" on China-India relations by allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit the state. About 20 years ago, the 14th Dalai Lama had recognised the 11th Panchen Lama, a six-year-old boy in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama reiterated Wednesday that he as well as his people were not seeking Tibet's independence, but are struggling to secure "meaningful autonomy" for the region from China.

Tawang's biggest claim to be the birthplace of the next Dalai Lama is that the sixth Dalai Lama was born there in the 17th Century.

Beijing labels the exiled Tibetian leader as a unsafe separatist who is trying to seek Tibet's independence from China.

"It is well known that the title of Dalai Lama, which was originally an academic title conferred by a Mongolian emperor under the rule of the (Chinese emperor) Ming government (1368-1644), became a political and religious title after it was recognised by the Qing government (1644-1911)", Wang said.

The Dalai Lama said the Chinese people were being fed wrong information about him, and they realise this when they meet him in other countries. Tawang is a place that the monk, who resides in exile in India, could be reincarnated, but not a location supported by China.

Buddhist monks and scores of devotees at the Tawang monastery, the biggest in India and second only to the world's largest, the Potala Palace in Tibet, received him warmly and with piety.